What sizes do you guys render out for proofs and what are your typical final deliverables for stills? Some scenes I see for benchmarks, or scenes I purchase to study, are usually set up to render really small. I usually send full resolution 4K proofs and that is usually my final outputs. What’s your process?
Most of my customers are printing so I use a print aspect ratio. For final output I provide 8 megapixels 3264 x 2448 and tell them it’s adequate for 8.5x11 printing. I ask them to let me know if they they are printing larger. I provide drafts at 3 megapixels 2048x1536. If it’s for a product brochure I’ll often send full resolution drafts after the first go around.
Okay, 4k seems to be 8 megapixels, so we are on the same page there. Your aspect ratio seems a little old school. I am rendering out wider (HDTV), so they look more modern.
I have never had anyone want more then 4K, so it seems to be the sweet spot.
I think it depends on whether it’s for print or not. Most of my customers use desktop printers at 8.5x11 with an aspect of 4:3. If I use an aspect of 16:9 it leaves blank space on the page. All of my customers that are creating product brochures ask for 8.5x11 300 dpi. It’s probably just what their used to. I’f I’m doing animation I use 16:9.
I see, makes sense.
Except printers who always want a higher resolution - “I’m printing a banner and I need it at 4’x5’ at 300dpi.”
I usually provide something in the neighborhood of 3840x2560 for finals and 1920x1280 for progress images.
I have been thinking of lowering my proofs to 1920X1080
I use a primarily 3x2 aspect ratio. That’s the aspect ration that my digital slr shoots at and I often use that for site photograph/backplate. It looks more like a photo because it is matching into a photo Maybe? 16:9 does look more moderen but it’s a video/tv ratio I think.
I did 3000 x 2000 for years and sometime do 1500 x 1000 proofs but usually just send the full res. I’m now starting to bump it up to 3800 x 2533 so I can say 4K and “Ultra HD” when asked.
3800 X 2533 is an aspect ratio of 1.5, which is almost the same as dlparisi’s.
If not specified, I do 4K finals, with drafts lower quality and varied in resolution depending on time frames available.
One of my larger clients however, insists on 2 rounds of drafts before the “final”. All 3 rounds should be 5.6K final high quality
When I talk to customers I often specify resolution in megapixels so that it relates better to cameras. Most people are familiar with that terminology because of their phone or camera. At the end of the day it’s best to know how the image will be used and tailor the output for that. If it’s for screen display 16:9 is the best in my opinion. Print and screen? Maybe something half way. Printers always say 300 dpi, ha ha.
I love it when a customer asks for poster size and says the printer told them it needs to be 300 dpi!
One problem with lower res drafts is that they can sometimes lead to objections when they see the higher res final. There may be details that weren’t visible in the draft. When I send a “draft” they often ask if it will look “better” in the final. It’s hard to explain that it depends on how much they zoom in on the image or whether they print the image. Everyone likes to be able to zoom in really close to the details or send it to the printer with no understanding of resolution. This is why I’ve been gradually increasing the size of my drafts. I often think I should just run final size images and skip the whole draft thing:(
I’ve pretty much gravitated to that for the reasons you state.
And like the guy Mike, in Fabios interview, I rarely send a “draft or progress version” usually only send images that are at least 98% complete.
5k normally
I recently had requests for 30k x 30k images at the end of the project but the models and textures (detailed flowers) didn’t hold up to that and I was having issues running out of RAM and I have 128 on my blades…
so i upscaled the 5k images to 30k added some noise and a bit of sharpness and they were ‘amazed by the extra detail’ lol
I too liked that however, I do use the whole proof thing to drag my feet sometimes. It allows me to juggle more projects, but if I could bypass the proof process it would sure speed things up. My fear would be having to start over. Twice last month I was given drawings that were old and I had to start over. If this wasn’t caught in the gray-scale proof that would be a nightmare.
If you work one single extra minute on updating because they did this, you should be charging for it.
I’m often forwarded drawings by people that don’t have CAD, so they haven’t actually look at the file and sometimes they are incorrect. On larger projects I now send a toon preview of each image to make sure the CAD file is correct. It’s better to find out early!
That’s the case here, too. I get things forwarded to me, by the developer, from the architect. Last week I sent a gray-scale proof of three interiors and I was told that it was the totally wrong plan.